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THE STORY OF MOHONK 




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THE STORY 
OF MOHONK 



BY 



FREDERICK E. PARTINGTON 



NINETEEN HUNDRED ELEVEN 



F/Z7 



Copyright, 1911 
lY MoHONK Salesrooms 



THE MORRILL PRESS. FULTON. N. Y. 



tCI.A3i9646 



PREFACE 

^ I^HE oft-repeated inquiry as to the 
-^ history of Mohonk led the pub- 
lishers of this book to believe that a 
brief sketch of its founding and growth 
would be gladly welcomed and cher- 
ished by many who have expressed 
their love for the place by making it 
their summer home for many seasons. 

We sincerely trust that the book will 
fully gratify those who have expressed 
their desire for such a work, and wish 
to assure them that it is in every re- 
spect a token of good will and affection 
to all who care for, or are interested 
in the story of Mohonk. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Mr. Albert K. Smiley Frontispiece 

The Old Bridge and Mr. Stokes ... 2 

Early Mohonk 2 

Boating in the Old Days 6 

The First House, i868 8 

Mohonk House as first seen by 

Mr. Smiley, 1869 8 

Mohonk House, 191 1 12 

Office Building about 1882 14 

•The "Old Boys" 16 

Washington Profile 20 

The Trapps 20 

View from Eagle Cliff 24 

Sky Top Road 24 

•The Flower Gardens 26 

The Great Crevice 30 

Undercliff Road 3° 

^Testimonial Gateway 3^ 



THE STORY OF MOHONK 

ONE day in the early summer of 
1869, Alfred H. Smiley, who was 
then living near Poughkeepsie, pro- 
posed to spend the day at one of two 
places — either going by steamer down 
to West Point or going by carriage to 
a romantic lake, which, he had heard, 
lay hidden in the mountains west of 
the Wallkill Valley. What finally led 
him to the choice of the unknown 
lake is not clear, but it is interesting 
to speculate what the future of Lake 
Mohonk might have been had Mr. 
Smiley that morning chosen to go to 
West Point. 

The road from the Hudson to New 
Paltz differed little at that time from 
the present — but from New Paltz to 
Mohonk no road of any consequence 
existed. Local picnic parties strug- 



2 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

gled up both sides of the mountains 
over paths that had gradually devel- 
oped, doubtless, from ancient Indian 
trails. Approaching the place from the 
Wallkill Valley side this rude path 
followed along the eastern shore of the 
lake. It was under such conditions 
that Alfred Smiley paid his first visit 
to Lake Mohonk. He used to tell of 
his speechless wonder as he caught 
the first vision of these imprisoned 
waters; how weary and panting he 
struggled up that steep rocky path 
that brought him under the beetling 
heights of Sky Top; and how suddenly 
he saw through the dark pines the 
glittering water — and beyond it the 
wonderful cliffs rising from the western 
side of the lake. It had for him all the 
sensation of a discovery. It was as if 
now for the first time this lake had 
been looked upon by a white man. 




THE OLD BRIDGE AND MR. STOKE 




EARLY MOHONK 



THE STORY OF MOHONK 3 

There was scarcely a sign of life. The 
shores were traversed by only a rough 
path; and the extraordinary fissures, 
caverns and rock formations that now 
afford so much delight, were most of 
them inaccessible — their existence not 
even suspected. As he saw it then, it 
could not have differed essentially from 
what it had been to the Indians. When 
the white men first appeared in this 
region — as early as 1614 — the lake 
already had its name,. Mohonk — the 
Lake of the Sky. The valleys were 
peopled by Indians, Iroquois and Al- 
gonquins and other tribes, fighting fre- 
quently and frequently moving, and 
all of them, doubtless, when hard 
pressed, retreating to the labyrinths of 
the Shawangunk (pronounced Shon- 
gum) mountains. There could be no 
more baffiing maze for the pursuing 
enemy than what existed then and 



4 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

exists now In these mountains; and Mr. 
Smiley has frequently expressed the 
opinion that he could still hide in the 
vicinity of the lake so that he could 
not be found by anybody. 

At the time of this first visit of Mr. 
Smiley, the lake and adjacent property 
were owned by Mr. John F. Stokes, a 
farmer in the valley, an excellent man, 
who had already built a small rude 
structure where he could entertain 
picnic parties and, for those who were 
courageous, could offer lodging. Mr. 
Smiley has described it graphically : 

*' There was a little house here in 
which a man kept a barroom, right 
under the corner of the present parlor. 
One room was for dancing, and people 
came up from the valley and danced all 
night, for which he charged them one 
dollar a couple. This man, and an 
old lady and an Irish boy, ran the 
establishment. He sold liquor also 



THE STORY OF MOHONK 5 

though he tried to keep folks from drink- 
ing too much. When people, however, 
really got drunk and hard to manage, 
Mr. Stokes used to chain them to trees 
and in that way maintained order. 
Over the large dancing-room were ten 
bedrooms, each seven feet long by five 
feet wide. Each bed was a bunk a foot 
and a half wide with a straw mattress, 
one sheet, one quilt and a hen-feather 
pillow, and each room had one chair. 
If any one wanted to wash, the lake 
was handy. When a visitor demanded 
dinner, the Irish boy would catch a 
chicken, kill it in front of the house, 
and pass It over to the woman to cook. 
On one occasion — when there were no 
chickens to catch — they caught the pet 
peacock and the old woman prepared 
it for the guest. This showed the good 
nature of Mr. Stokes. He thought a 
great deal of the peacock but the guest 
had to have some dinner — though the 
visitor confessed It was the toughest 
morsel he ever tackled." 



6 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

To the owner of that mountain hut 
in 1869, Mohonk was doubtless but a 
lake, and Sky Top no more than a cliff. 
To the man who had just climbed the 
mountain and stood enraptured on the 
other side of the lake, It was a prospect 
for which he could imagine no bounds. 
He saw In that quick sweep of his eye 
the whole future of the place unfolding 
and forming. He could scarcely be- 
lieve that business sagacity had thus 
far missed a chance like this. He was 
standing less than a hundred miles 
from the metropolis of the country; 
he was surrounded by romantic natu- 
ral features absolutely unknown to the 
great outside world — and so unique In 
character that they could be brought 
into no comparison with any other 
known region of the eastern states. 

He was ferried across the lake; 
roamed enthusiastically from point to 



THE STORY OF MOHONK 7 

point; and could scarcely wait in pa- 
tience till he should send word to his 
twin brother Albert. It is a pity that 
the letter he wrote has not been pre- 
served. It reached his brother, who 
was then at the head of the well-known 
and successful Friends' School of Provi- 
dence, R. I., at a time of year when the 
activities of the school were at their 
height and when no thought of any- 
thing else could be entertained. But 
here was a message from his brother — 
a wise, conservative man of great busi- 
ness sense — asking him to leave every- 
thing and to come to an obscure lake 
in New York state. He had a prompt 
reply ready. He sent word that it 
would be impossible. To a second 
appeal, however, Mr. Albert Smiley, 
though still protesting, came on from 
Providence, and together the twin 
brothers visited the lake. The owner, 



8 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

Mr. Stokes, was there to meet them, 
and on that day they cHmbed to Sky 
Top. Mr. Albert Smiley relates that 
"Mr. Stokes did not appreciate some 
features of natural beauty. 'I suppose,' 
said he, 'that the Creator made every- 
thing for some use; but what in the 
world He ever made this pizen laurel 
for I can't see. It never grows big 
enough for firewood and the cattle 
won't eat it.' " The old man talked 
only of firewood, fodder, and area. 
He believed he had three hundred acres 
to dispose of — he had a map to prove 
it; but as the three men walked up to 
Sky Top and the view began to widen, 
it was evident that it was not a ques- 
tion of map or of acres with the two 
schoolmasters. They passed above the 
huge boulders that lie like a great 
chaos, and from the labyrinth they saw 
the lake with its indescribable color 




THE FIRST HOUSE, i 




MOHONK HOUSE AS FIRST SEEN BY MR. SMILEY, 1869 



THE STORY OF MOHONK 9 

far below; they watched the gradual 
unfolding of the two fertile valleys and 
the Catskill range against the western 
sky, and finally at the summit, saw the 
white waters of the Hudson at West 
Point, and the far away hills of at 
least five adjacent states. They looked 
down as upon a kingdom. Both men 
were greatly impressed, and talking it 
over together agreed, as they generally 
did upon all questions, that before 
they parted that day from Mr. Stokes, 
an option on the property should 
be secured by the brother Albert. 
The price demanded for it was 
forty thousand dollars. The price paid 
was twenty-eight thousand dollars. 
"I spent every dollar I had," said Mr. 
Smiley, "and ran in debt fourteen 
thousand dollars. My sole purpose 
was to provide a home and in order to 
pay for it I started in a business for 



10 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

which, above all things in the world, 
I had a distaste and no experience. 
I suppose that hotel keeping was the 
very last thing in my mind until I 
bought this place, when I was about 
forty-five years old. I had no more 
thought of it than of going to the 
moon. I had graduated from Haver- 
ford and was a teacher both by training 
and by taste. I had been nine years 
at the head of the Friends' School in 
Providence when I bought Mohonk; 
I remained at the head of it ten years 
longer in order to earn money for my 
new venture." 

Mr. Albert Smiley therefore found 
himself suddenly in the hotel business. 
In the summer of 1870, the original 
house, erected by Mr. Stokes, was a 
trifle remodeled and made to accommo- 
date about forty guests. They were 
nearly all personal friends from Phila- 



THE STORY OF MOHONK ii 

delphia and from New York. Still 
averse to the details of hotel work, Mr. 
Smiley employed a manager, who man- 
aged things so badly that the next year 
he persuaded his brother Alfred to su- 
perintend the business features, and 
began an organized policy which has 
ever since marked the growth and suc- 
cess of Lake Mohonk. 

There is a story prevalent to the 
effect that the original owner was a 
Quaker who refused to let the property 
go unless a compact was made never 
to sell liquor in the hotel. On the con- 
trary, Mr. Stokes had always sold 
liquor and tried to persuade Mr. 
Smiley to keep on selling it — at least 
to the neighbors! And he had other 
serious ambitions; for he urged the 
new owners to establish a race-course 
near what is now known as the Home 
Farm; and he evidently was convinced 



12 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

that with liquor for the neighbors and 
guests, and a race- course for amuse- 
ment and for a source of income, the 
venture would prove a great success. 
The opinion of the old tavern keeper 
was probably shared by all other hotel 
men and most of the public. It seemed 
preposterous to conduct a house with- 
out a bar; and still more preposterous 
to exclude cards and dancing. But 
Mohonk had no difficulty in meeting 
the awful prophecies of failure. The 
hotel was full in its first season and 
has been full ever since. 

The original purchase called for three 
hundred acres. As a matter of fact 
there were only two hundred and eighty 
acres. Besides the lake it included 
what is now the tennis-courts, a narrow 
strip along Eagle Cliff, a little of the 
Home Farm and Sky Top, and ended in 
the garden where the hotbeds now are. 



THE STORY OF M H O N K 13 

This first purchase, however, was 
but the beginning. It became almost 
immediately manifest that no amount of 
moral force could preserve the character 
of Mohonk and keep away nuisances. 
The history of nearly every great 
estate is a record of self protection. 
In the first place, neighbors in the 
country do not always share your re- 
spect for natural scenery and natural 
objects. If wood is needed, they cut 
down the trees, even along the roadside 
— the best and the biggest; if large 
berry crops are wanted, they do not 
hesitate to set fire to acres and acres 
and imperil a whole county; if they 
need building stone — they blow up a 
historic precipice; if they seek drainage 
they foolishly pollute a mountain 
stream. To protect Mohonk from all 
these dangers, Mr. Smiley began a 
series of purchases. He was surrounded 



14 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

by farms, and one after another they 
were added to his holdings. "The 
hardest work I ever did in my Hfe," 
said Mr. Smiley, "was the buying of 
those farms." No sooner was a menace 
disposed of in one direction than an- 
other one appeared somewhere else. 
It was a perennial contest. Farms 
good, bad and indifferent had to be 
gathered in. Some were promptly de- 
veloped for dairy purposes — and still 
contribute to the supplies of the house. 
Some continued to be used for crops 
and for the support of cattle and horses. 
For several years some of them yielded 
abundant quantities of fruit. It has 
taken over one hundred distinct pur- 
chases to establish the present state of 
immunity. From a plot of two hun- 
dred and eighty acres, the estate has 
been extended to a domain of over five 
thousand acres. From a span of a few 





OFFICE BUILDING ABOUT 1882 



THE STORY OF MOHONK 15 

hundred feet along the lake it has been 
increased to a length of about eight 
miles, and approaches New Paltz to 
within a mile. This is sufficient to 
show the growth in mere acreage and 
to aiford a startling contrast to that 
first but most important purchase 
made in the summer of '69. 

But the growth in territory, while 
interesting enough, is after all the least 
important phase of the development 
of Mohonk. The land so acquired 
meant something else ; it meant that the 
hotel was growing and it meant espe- 
cially that tremendous energy had to 
be turned to the development and to 
the beautifying of that land. The old 
Stokes House that stood near the lake, 
as already intimated, underwent im- 
mediate changes. To this was added 
the old dining-room wing. Back of 
this and on a level with the cliffs 



i6 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

the small parlor building was erected 
and became one of the memorable 
features of early Mohonk. "The Lit- 
tle Parlor," with its expressive, cosy 
chairs and its genteel habituees, grew, 
to some of those interesting little ladies, 
almost sacred. While this section was 
still standing, the old original office 
wing was demolished and the first en- 
largement of the business part of the 
house was made in 1880. Subsequently 
the large parlor section was erected. 
Beyond this, in 1879, the present Rock 
Building rose. In 1892-93 the present 
dining-room and the new kitchen were 
added. The old dining-hall was divided 
into temporary rooms and this wing 
preserved till 1902 when it was torn 
down and the central section extending 
from the office to the new dining-room 
erected. In 1899 the large office build- 
ing, containing small rooms above and 







o u 









THE STORY OF MOHONK 17 

the old Lake Reading-room, was demol- 
ished and the present structure with 
the great parlor took its place. And 
finally, as the last process in the evolu- 
tion of the House as it now stands, in 
1901-02, the lofty stone section sup- 
planted the old parlor wing. At each 
stage there disappeared some feature 
of old Mohonk, grown to be cherished 
by the guests, and it was perplexing at 
times to decide whether to be guided 
by sentiment or necessity. The oldest 
part of the present hotel is the Rock 
Building erected in 1879 — and every 
vestige of the other sections standing 
at that time has disappeared. 

Meanwhile the development of the 
grounds went on with great rapidity. 
Wild nature came up to the very doors 
of the hotel and rough paths or trails 
had been broken only to prominent 
points. Not infrequently guests lost 



i8 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

their way on the long tramps, and on 
one occasion a lady despairing of ever 
getting home became hysterical and 
set up heart-rending shrieks till help 
came. She was found standing less 
than two hundred feet from the house. 
To make accessible the beauty and 
romance of the mountain, the system- 
atic construction of paths was begun. 
Through labyrinth and forest, over 
ravines and under precipices, through 
fissure and cavern and solemn vales, 
year after year the trails were made 
and the trails then widened into walks, 
till one could well nigh spend a summer 
in tramping without the repetition of 
a path; and it is one of the pleasantest 
memories of those earlier days to recall 
the forenoon tours led by Mr. Smiley 
himself, when scores of guests both 
young and old went forth with Alpine 
stocks to explore the mysteries of the 



THE STORY OF MOHONK 19 

Shawangunk range. Gradually along 
these paths sprang up the rustic seats 
with straw-thatched roofs, peculiar to 
Mohonk ; and as time went on the 
names of distinguished visitors were 
given to these picturesque houses, of 
which at present there must be no less 
than one hundred and fifty. 

For years the only drive, and that a 
rough one, was what was known as 
Whitney Road, leading over to Moun- 
tain Rest. Later came a beautiful 
road called Woodland Drive, circling 
about the base of Eagle Cliff through 
the chestnut forest. In quick succes- 
sion roads were built to Cope's Look- 
out, North Lookout, Eagle Cliff and 
Sky Top, involving at some points the 
highest engineering skill. Bonticou 
Drive came in 1895; the long winding 
forest road — Oakwood Drive — followed 
in 1898; the bold and romantic Laurel 



20 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

Ledge Road in 1900; Undercliff and 
Terrace Drive in 1903; the great road 
to Minnewaska in 1907; all of these 
drives presenting model examples of 
road making under surprising difficul- 
ties, surprisingly overcome. 

The demolition of the old stables in 
1888, marked the real beginning of the 
extensive gardens. The land thus lib- 
erated grew rapidly larger, and, as al- 
ready mentioned, no one who has not 
seen the untamable jungle beyond this 
point could appreciate the combined 
enthusiasm and energy required to 
transform all that into the blossoming 
acres that now stretch almost to the 
crest of the mountain. What that gar- 
den yields in variety and color, what 
it succeeds in producing against appar- 
ently natural obstacles, is a story by 
itself. There are six thousand rose 
bushes of the choicest kinds, five thou- 




WASHINGTON P R O 1 I L E 




THE TRAPPS 



THE STORY OF MOHONK 21 

sand paeonies, four thousand phlox, 
eight thousand bedding plants, and 
one of the largest collections of her- 
baceous perennials and shrubs in the 
country. 

No words can convey any concep- 
tion of the difficulties that confronted 
the new owner of Mohonk when he 
really began to exploit the mountains 
for roads and flower beds. Gardening 
with Mr. Smiley was dangerously near 
a passion. As nature had arranged 
things at Mohonk there seemed to be 
only two places for growing flowers — 
on the quartz rocks and on the branches 
of trees. A remote third might have 
been on the lake — a floating garden. 
There was not a square of a hundred 
feet where anything but ferns and li- 
chens could hold on — and it had taken 
some of the lichens a hundred years or 
more to cover a few inches. The old 



22 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

guests with records of thirty summers 
are the only ones who can really appre- 
ciate the miracle of the gardens. They 
can look back to the time when Mr. 
Smiley used to point with pride to a 
bed of geraniums on the side of the 
road close to the water and to a delicate 
white birch tree that looked like a frail 
child — not long for this world. He 
succeeded in stringing those geraniums 
along the road as it swings over the 
bridge and to the south, and every bud 
cost him, probably, five dollars. Any- 
body caught plucking one would doubt- 
lessly have paid ten or have been sent 
away. He classed that sin with drink. 
Gradually these ganglia of flowers be- 
gan to grow. Larger beds were made — 
soil was brought long distances and all 
around the exterior of the house plants 
were made to flourish in especially 
fortified enclosures and in soil that 



THE STORY OF MOHONK 23 

practically had to be renewed to the 
last particle every year. Finally when 
the old stables near the bowling-alleys 
were removed in 1888 the present gar- 
den, as already noted, began its remark- 
able expansion. Beyond the stables 
lay a wilderness of boulders and cliffs. 
To civilize this was literally asking 
Faith to remove mountains. It was 
done partly, perhaps, to provide space 
for flowers. It was more likely that 
the impossible nature of the task acted 
as a challenge. It is always so with 
intrepid engineers — pole seekers — be- 
siegers. Getting the land may have 
been the hardest thing Mr. Smiley ever 
did — but taming it gave him the great- 
est delight of his life. He did not rest 
until he had coaxed into blossom nearly 
twenty acres of that hopeless slope of 
the mountain. Most of the earth was 
brought a mile or more — and the won- 



24 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

der is, still, how it is ever kept in place. 
To this garden Mr. Smiley has given no 
end of time and intelligent care, and his 
reward has been, as he himself says, 
"a. long life and abounding health." 

Unique as the physical history of 
Mohonk has been, it is doubtless the 
spirit of the place that ultimately dis- 
tinguishes it from all others. Its well 
known silent code relating to the com- 
mon nuisances of liquor, dancing, card 
playing and Sabbath breaking gave it 
a certain eminence from the start. The 
truth about these rules is that Mr. 
Smiley never made any rules. He 
never, in fact, had any intention of 
conducting a hotel; at least, of conduct- 
ing one on conventional plans. His 
guests were, at first, nearly all of them 
personal friends. They came very 
much as they would have come to his 
private home. It proved to most of 




VIEW FROM EAGLE CLIFF ROAD 




SKY TOP ROAH 



THE STORY OF MOHONK 25 

them a refreshing deHght to find one 
place in the land free from the despotic 
sway of a bar, of noisy dancing and bad 
music, of monopolizing card parties, 
and of a Sunday that differed from no 
other day. Some of them used to re- 
mark that it had the restful isolation 
of an ocean voyage — though in these 
days of wireless, the invasion of Mo- 
honk remains even less than that of the 
Atlantic. The first noticeable result 
was in the personnel of the guests. The 
house never advertised and never 
sought publicity. Mr. Smiley himself 
met every guest on arrival and was 
present always to say God-speed. The 
native atmosphere of the place brought 
speedily together a body of well-bred, 
unostentatious, thoughtful people. 
They were not of any particular type 
or caste. A classification of any of 
those early registers would show a widely 



26 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

representative group of American men 
of affairs. Lawyers, doctors, schol- 
ars, bankers, merchants and executives 
came in great numbers — and continued 
to come year after year. That was the 
abiding feature. It became a settled 
summer abode for scores of well-known 
families. It was perhaps noticeably 
free from the ultra-fashionable, mer- 
cerized or newspaper society, and has 
always remained so. Dr. Theodore L. 
Cuyler, who came to Mohonk first in 
1879, describes his immediate meeting 
with many prominent people. He 
found here the nieces of Washington 
Irving; he met for the first time the 
merchant philanthropist, William E. 
Dodge; Arnold Guyot, the distin- 
guished scientist — for whom Guyot's 
Hill is named; Philip Schaff, the tire- 
less scholar, editor, friend of all the 
world's great thinkers. He records his 



',p-f^l*, 




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•> ^, 




THE STORY OF MOHONK 27 

meeting here with Mrs. Grant, wife of 
the soldier President; with President 
Hayes — and Roosevelt and Waring; 
with Edward Everett Hale, Justices 
Brewer and Strong, Senator Dawes 
and many, many more. For nearly 
thirty consecutive summers Dr. Cuyler 
himself lent to the sparkling intellectual 
life of Mohonk no small measure. 

It would be strange indeed if a gath- 
ering of serious and prominent people 
like this could happen so often and 
so steadily without something more 
than mere social results. In 1879, Mr. 
Albert Smiley was appointed by Presi- 
dent Hayes to the Board of Indian 
Commissioners. Surrendering himself 
to a conscientious study of the problems 
he became convinced that they needed 
more discussion and care than the In- 
dian Bureau could give them. In the 
fall of 1883, he called the first Confer- 



28 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

ence of Friends of the Indians. He 
invited to that first week's conference 
a group of men and women either ex- 
pert or vitally interested in Indian 
affairs and in the betterment of Indian 
conditions. It discussed, what subse- 
quent conferences continued to do, 
every phase of the Indian service and 
plead jealously for the purity and the 
honor of all relations of our National 
Government to that service. The 
consequences of these annual discus- 
sions are matters of record — the whole 
public sentiment has been changed and 
the recommendations of the Confer- 
ence have passed into actual legislation. 
The first Conference had for its Presi- 
dent, General Clinton B. Fisk. Among 
the distinguished men who have since 
filled the office may be mentioned the 
late Philip C. Garrett, Dr. Merrill 
E. Gates, Hon. John D. Long, Judge 



THE STORY OF MOHONK 29 

Andrew S. Draper, Hon. Charles J. 
Bonaparte, and Elmer E. Brown. 

The reforms demanded in the Indian 
Service being practically realized, the 
Conference of 1904 decided to broaden 
its field to include the welfare of colo- 
nial peoples, and the name was changed 
to ''Lake Mohonk Conference of 
Friends of the Indian and Other De- 
pendent Peoples." Under this title 
the work of the Conference goes on, 
and in October of each year Mr. Smiley 
continues to invite to Mohonk as his 
personal guests for three days several 
hundred people to discuss questions 
and to suggest measures relating to 
colonial affairs. 

The Conference on International Ar- 
bitration met first in the month of June 
in 1895 at Mohonk when Mr. Smiley 
invited about fifty persons of note and 
influence to come together and to form 



30 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

some organized plan for the study and 
discussion of that great subject. The 
purpose was from the first reasonable 
and definite. It proposed to discuss 
all practical means for substituting ar- 
bitration for war, to suggest and to 
urge methods and mechanism for the 
settlement of international differences, 
and to keep the public steadily in- 
formed of its economic features and 
possibilities. These Conferences, in- 
creasing from fifty persons in 1895 to 
more than three hundred in 1910, have 
brought together not only the influen- 
tial people of our own country, but 
many distinguished statesmen, diplo- 
mats, jurists and educators of other 
countries. The activity of the Con- 
ference, no longer confined to its brief 
session, is now continuous. It main- 
tains a permanent office, a permanent 
secretary, furnishes statistics and in- 



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THE STORY OF MOHONK 31 

formation to the press and to the pub- 
lic, and carries on wide and effective 
propaganda. Nearly two hundred 
boards of trade and chambers of com- 
merce, representing the largest cities of 
the land, co-operate with the Conference, 
and many of them maintain arbitration 
committees and send delegates. It has 
brought about the introduction of the 
study into various universities and col- 
leges; has done much to inspire the 
foundation of the New York Peace 
Society, the Inter-collegiate Peace So- 
ciety, the American Society of Inter- 
national Law; and finally, as a signifi- 
cant recognition of its achievements, 
Albert K. Smiley has been named as one 
of the administrators of Andrew Car- 
negie's gift of ten million dollars to the 
cause of international peace. 

It is little wonder, therefore, that to 
the army of guests who have climbed 



32 THE STORY OF MOHONK 

to Mohonk for the past forty years, It 
should have grown to be a sort of cita- 
del — morally embattled and fearless 
of the foe ; and little wonder, too, that 
these same guests should conceive the 
wish to dignify the approach to such 
a fortress by some formal and expres- 
sive portal, and so honor the life and 
work of its master spirit. The Testi- 
monial Gateway, erected to commem- 
orate the golden anniversary of Mr. 
and Mrs. Smiley's wedding, serves thus 
the double purpose, and constitutes a 
unique and remarkable testimony to 
the public services of the place and of 
the man. 

The story of Mohonk then, becomes 
obviously no simple chronicle of a 
mountain resort — the annals of a pleas- 
ant community of summer guests. Its 
material success, however amazing, has 
created only the setting for movements 




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THE STORY OF MOHONK 33 

that have long since been justified and 
which, affecting the honor and welfare 
of the country, have also done much 
to foster new ideals of human obliga- 
tions, and to inspire new hopes for the 
intercourse of men. 



SEP 6 1912 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 109 943 7 



